Uff you knocked it out of the park (and generally always do) but this is almost the perfect alchemical crystallisation of our current malaise:

“it was not “the pandemic” that shut down workplaces and the economy. it was “the pandemic response.” none of this needed to happen. had we literally done NOTHING, never noticed this, never named it, and never implemented a testing regimen so ill conceived and out of proportion as to be literally unique in the annals of all of human history, this would have passed barely remarked upon as “huh, that was a crummy flu year.” there would have been no economic damage. that was entirely self-inflicted, entirely avoidable, and known to be useless before we undertook it.“